Japan Reaffirms Nuclear Energy Use

TOKYO — Japan remains committed to nuclear power despite the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday, as workers moved closer to repairing the crippled plant by opening the doors of a damaged reactor building.

The view on Sunday from an observation deck at the Hamaoka nuclear plant, which the government wants to shut down until protections can be built.

Japan's Prime Minister reaffirmed the country's commitment to nuclear energy on Sunday, although the Hamaoka plant near Tokyo will be temporarily shut down.

The move is intended to air out the building that houses Reactor No. 1 to ensure that radiation levels are low enough to allow workers to enter. The plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the procedure would release little radiation into the atmosphere because an air filtering system installed last week had already removed most of the dangerous particles.

Eight hours after the doors were opened, workers entered the building to test radiation levels. The next step is to begin replacing the reactor’s cooling system, which was destroyed by the tsunami on March 11.

The company has said it will take at least six months to stabilize the plant, in which three of the six reactors were damaged by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami. Hydrogen explosions spewed radiation into the atmosphere, causing the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.

Despite the crisis in Japan, Mr. Kan indicated Sunday that his government was not rethinking the nation’s energy policy. There had been speculation that the government might seek to shut down more nuclear plants after Mr. Kan requested last week that the Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan be temporarily closed because of safety concerns.

Mr. Kan told reporters on Sunday that he would not seek to close any more of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors. He said the Hamaoka plant, 125 miles west of Tokyo, was “a special case” because it sat atop a major fault line. Government seismologists say there is an almost 90 percent chance of a major earthquake on the fault line within the next 30 years.

Critics have long warned of a possible accident at the Hamaoka plant, which is upwind of Tokyo. Mr. Kan asked that the plant be closed until a tsunami-resistant wall could be built and backup systems could be installed to strengthen the plant against earthquakes.

The Hamaoka plant’s operator, the Chubu Electric Power Company, accepted the prime minister’s request on Monday. The company’s board did not reach a decision at a meeting on Saturday, when some board members expressed concern about summer power shortages if the plant were shut down.

The utility company supplies power to central Japan, including Aichi Prefecture, the home of Toyota. In Tokyo, residents face the prospect of electricity shortages because of the loss of the power supplied by Fukushima Daiichi and other plants in earthquake-damaged northern Japan.

Despite the setbacks, Yoshito Sengoku, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, said Japan was not reconsidering its dependence on nuclear power, which supplies about a quarter of the nation’s electricity.